Questions to Ask Graduate Schools

The questions

Open any question to see why it works.

1. 1

   Am I being admitted to the programme or to a specific advisor?

   In much of the sciences you are admitted to work with one person and your funding follows them, so if the relationship fails you may have no programme. In many humanities and social science departments you choose later. Everything else you ask depends on which of these is true here, so ask it first.

2. 2

   What exactly does the funding offer cover, for how many years, and what is guaranteed in writing?

   Separate the stipend, the tuition waiver and the fees, because a waiver that leaves you paying a few thousand in fees each year is common and rarely mentioned aloud. Guaranteed means it appears in the offer letter. Anything described as typical or as usually renewed is not a guarantee.

3. 3

   What does the stipend come to after fees, and what does a one bedroom cost within reasonable travel of campus?

   The comparison between two offers is not the two stipends, it is what each leaves after housing. A programme in a cheap city with a smaller number can be a better offer by a wide margin. Ask a current student for the rent figure rather than the department, since departments quote optimistic numbers.

4. 4

   Is health insurance included, does it cover dependents, and what happens in the summer?

   Coverage frequently lapses in gaps between appointments, and dependent coverage is often paid by the student at full cost. If you have a partner, a child or an ongoing condition, this line can be worth more than the difference in stipend between two offers.

5. 5

   Do students teach, how much, and is it in addition to the funding or in exchange for it?

   A teaching requirement of one course a term is a job, and it competes directly with your research. Ask how many contact hours and how many students, whether you design the course or run sections, and in which years teaching falls, since front loaded teaching delays everything.

6. 6

   How is summer funded?

   Many offers cover nine months and leave three uncovered, with summer support competitive or dependent on teaching. Over five years that is more than a year of your income. Ask what proportion of students got summer funding last year rather than whether it is available.

7. 7

   What is the median time to degree here, and what share of an entering cohort finishes?

   Both numbers exist and departments usually have them, so reluctance to give them is an answer in itself. Ask for the median rather than the average, and ask about the last five cohorts rather than a decade, since programmes change funding structures and the older numbers flatter them.

8. 8

   What are the milestones, and what fraction pass the qualifying exam first time?

   You want the structure and the failure rate: coursework, language requirements, comprehensive exams, prospectus defence, and what happens to someone who fails. In some departments a failed exam is a retake, in others it is an exit with a master's, and nobody tells applicants which kind this is.

9. 9

   How and when do students get an advisor, and what happens if it does not work out?

   Ask for the mechanism and then for the last real case: someone whose advisor left, retired, lost funding or fell out with them. Every department has had one in the past few years, and how it was handled is far more informative than the written policy on changing supervisors.

10. 10

    Is the person I want to work with taking students, and how many do they have now?

    Faculty listed on a website may be on leave, moving institution, near retirement, or already supervising ten people. This is a fair question to put to the department and a better one to put to their current students. Confirm it with the person directly before you accept.

11. 11

    Where did the last three cohorts go after graduating?

    Ask for the actual destinations of named years rather than a claim that graduates do well. You are looking at how many left academia, how many are still on short contracts, and whether the placements are the kind of work you want. A department that only names its two best outcomes is telling you about the rest.

12. 12

    What support exists for careers outside the university, and does anyone here treat that as a normal outcome?

    Most doctoral graduates will not hold a permanent academic post, and departments differ enormously in whether that is discussed openly or treated as failure. Ask whether alumni in industry, government or policy come back to talk, since that is the practical form of support.

13. 13

    Is there a graduate student union, and what does the contract cover?

    Where there is one, the contract sets minimum stipends, workload limits, grievance procedures and often health coverage, and it is a public document you can read before deciding. Where there is not, ask what the process is if a student has a complaint about a supervisor.

14. 14

    What money exists for conferences, fieldwork, equipment or archives, and how do you get it?

    Ask the amount per student per year and whether it is an entitlement or an application. If your work requires travel, a programme with no research budget quietly makes you fund your own dissertation, and that constraint arrives in year three when it is hardest to fix.

15. 15

    What are the policies on parental leave, medical leave and interrupting study?

    Ask whether leave stops the funding clock or only the degree clock, because if they diverge you can return to a programme with no money left. Also ask how many students have taken leave recently. A policy nobody uses is often a policy that is discouraged in practice.

16. 16

    Can you show me a current student's normal week?

    Programme descriptions are lists of requirements and tell you nothing about the shape of the days. Asking for an actual week, including the teaching, the reading, the seminar and the hours that are genuinely free, is the fastest way to see whether the life on offer suits you.

17. 17

    How does the department handle a conflict between a student and a faculty member?

    Ask who a student goes to first, whether that person is independent of the supervisor, and whether the process has ever ended in a change of supervisor. Departments with a named ombudsperson or an independent graduate director answer this easily. Others will change the subject.

18. 18

    What is the biggest problem in this department right now?

    A direct question to a director of graduate studies, and the quality of the answer is the point. A specific answer about a hiring freeze, a retirement wave, a space shortage or a stipend that has fallen behind rent indicates candour. A claim that there is no problem indicates a sales conversation.

19. 19

    Is leaving with a master's a normal path here, and does anyone do it?

    You are asking whether there is a dignified exit if this turns out not to be for you. In some departments a terminal master's is routine and unremarkable, in others it is treated as failure and there is no mechanism at all. Knowing which before you enrol is worth a slightly awkward question.

20. 20

    If I turned this down, where would you expect me to go, and why?

    Asked of faculty, this produces an unusually honest map of where the department sees itself and what it thinks its weaknesses are. Some will name a rival and tell you why they are better for your topic, which is a useful thing to hear from someone recruiting you.